Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962) is one strange film. On one hand, it tiresomely works its way through the tropes of myriad other, mostly cheap ‘50s-style sci-fi films about astronauts traveling to another planet, and what they find once they get there. On the other, it's also incredibly peculiar in odd little ways as to be almost mesmerizing. It shamelessly but at times effectively steals the basic premise of "Mars is Heaven!" one of the best-known sections of Ray Bradbury's monumental The Martian Chronicles (1950) but, also, it's a lot like a low-budget ‘50s sci-fi version of Andrei Tarkovsky's later, infinitely more cerebral Solaris (1972).

Journey to the Seventh Planet was the last of three films produced, directed, and/or written by Sid Pink and Ib Melchior. Pink had mentored under the equally odd producer Arch Obler, with whom Pink worked as an associate on Bwana Devil (1952), the movie that launched the 3-D craze of the 1950s, and the bizarre but mirthless satire The Twonky (1953), about a malevolent walking television set from outer space. Pink and Melchior joined forces for The Angry Red Planet (1959) which, like Obler's films, strained to stand out in a crowded exploitation field. That film featured scenes in "CineMagic," an optical printing process devised by Norman Maurer (Moe Howard's son-in-law), which turned live action footage into something resembling a cartoon.

For their next collaboration, Pink shot Reptilicus (1961) in Melchior's native Denmark. The results, particularly in the special effects department, were so awful that American distributor AIP radically altered the film for its U.S. release, and even that version was awesomely bad. It may be the worst professionally made giant monster movie ever.

Like Reptilicus, Journey to the Seventh Planet was again shot in Demark, and again the Danish special effects proved so laughably bad AIP ordered one key scene redone, while another was largely replaced with blue-tinted stock footage from the black-and-white Earth vs. the Spider (1958). However, unlike the singularly Danish-flavored Reptilicus, Journey to the Seventh Planet has more of an American feel, albeit with continental flourishes.

The movie lingered in relative obscurity for many years until unearthed by MGM as a "Midnight Movie" DVD release, and has since acquired a blip of a cult following. This interest is, in its own way, deserved, as the picture tries hard to be different, looks slightly more expensive than its reported $75,000 budget (still absurdly cheap) and has several moments that are almost actually good.

This makes Kino Lorber's release of Journey to the Seventh Planet on Blu-ray all the more welcome. For such an undernourished movie there's some striking color photography, and it's nice to see details in the sets, costumes, and special effects not possible since its original theatrical run.

On route to the planet Uranus (correctly pronounced "your-AH-niss"), the crew aboard the rocket ship bound there - Commander Eric (Carl Ottosen, star of Reptilicus), sex-starved Don Graham (John Agar), virginal German boy Karl (Peter Monch), colorful Irishman Barry O'Sullivan (Ove Sprogøe), and scientist Svend (Louis Miehe-Renard) - lose consciousness for several days when an alien presence apparently scans them. Upon landing, the frozen surface of Uranus transforms into a temperate, forested landscape, baffling the crew.

Soon obvious to the audience but not the crew, the single alien being, a colossal brain with a big, single eye at its center, is reading their minds and conjuring environments from their subconsciouses. In badly matched cuts, the crew wanders through the forest, a mix of real exteriors and an absurdly cramped soundstage, closer in size to a closet than a soundstage. A force field envelops the forest, and when Karl foolishly sticks his arm through it's instantly frozen by the planet's true atmosphere.

The alien also begins conjuring up lifelike people. Eric's dream girl, Ingrid (Ann Smyrner, very pretty and also of Reptilicus) materializes in a farm house, while Don's sexual fantasy, Danish-born Hollywood starlet Greta Thyssen (as herself) makes amorous advances toward the astronaut, who's all too happy to throw caution to the wind. Curiously, until very late in the film everyone takes everything in stride, accepting these women at face value, never guessing they're actually an extension of the malevolent alien brain itself.

Pink's direction is hopeless, though not as lethargic as the profoundly dull Reptilicus. Melchior's script, altered to bad effect by Pink, presents some interesting concepts commonplace in literary science fantasy but rare in movies. For instance, none of plants and trees in the forest has roots; they're simply stuck into the ground and easily toppled. The interior of the spaceship and the astronaut's spacesuits show some imagination, and more acceptable than most such sets and costumes made on this kind of budget.

The characters are stock types but, other than Agar, the Danish actors playing them are somewhat distinctive, though hampered by amateurish dubbing, with Melchior voicing several parts himself. (The actor performing Eric's voice sounds an awful lot like Robert Ryan though isn't.) Agar, as usual, awkwardly grins and grimaces his way through his hot-blooded part and is never convincing, though his familiar presence is almost welcome.

And yet despite all that's absurd, illogical, cheap, and clunky about Journey to the Seventh Planet, it's still several notches above most other films of its budget level. Aage Wiltrup's colorful cinematography is a big help, as is Otto Lund's art direction, each working under less than ideal circumstances. Flashes of interesting concepts abound, such as Eric describing a landscape when, to the astonishment of the other astronauts listening, it materializes in real time right behind him.

As many of the Danish effects proved too poor even by AIP's minimal standards, one monster sequence had to be replaced with blink-and-you'll-miss-it stop-motion animation executed by Jim Danforth. Brief (and briefly-executed) as it is, it's the best thing special effects-wise in the entire film. The use of stock shots from Earth vs. the Spider only makes the picture's confusing climax all the more perplexing, as does a decision by Eric near the end that, to the audience, seems perversely self-defeating.

Video & Audio

I was pretty underwhelmed by the high-def transfer of Reptilicus, also from MGM and Kino, but Journey to the Seventh Planet looks splendid, with excellent color and detail, and presented in 1.85:1 widescreen. The DTS-HD Master Audio mono audio is also good, even though the entire film was dubbed in post-production. Region A encoded.

Extra Features

Besides vastly improving on the image, the other big draw is the audio commentary by Video Watchdog's Tim Lucas. Sci-fi and horror fans have been blessed with loads of genre titles on Blu-ray recently, a large percentage of them with audio commentaries. However, precious few of these commentators do their homework like Lucas does. Where many foolishly attempt to "wing it," Lucas scrupulously researches and prepares densely-packed tracks brimming with interesting film industry and cultural perspectives, carefully-considered observations, and fascinating information about the film's production, its cast and crew. I ended up listening to this and Tom Weaver's equally excellent track for Gog nearly back-to-back, and five randomly-selected minutes of either track far exceeds the entirety of commentaries their rivals achieve. A trailer is also included.

Final Thoughts

While very mediocre overall, Journey to the Seventh Planet possesses many beguiling little moments that, while few come off quite as intended, make plain that the filmmakers were at least striving for something halfway decent, even if the budget and their own skills weren't up to the task. Still, for genre fans, this comes Recommended.

Stuart Galbraith IV is the Kyoto-based film historian and publisher-editor of World Cinema Paradise. His new documentary and latest audio commentary, for the British Film Institute's Blu-ray of Rashomon, is now available.